God Save The Clientele (CD)

The Clientele

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Media Condition: Very Good CD

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Review
The third full-length from this London-based band overflows with more gorgeous, wispy autumnal fare. The Clientele’s musical world holds a romantic mirror to the band’s rainy hometown, but leavens the melancholia with orchestral pop that calls to mind Britain’s idyllic “green and pleasant” countryside. The songs create a magical place where, when Alasdair MacLean sings “my heart was playing like a violin,” a violin will emerge on cue from the arrangement and sing to you, too, and do it so organically that you never get the sense you’re being patronized or manipulated. Mark Nevers produced the record in Nashville, and he’s the right man for the job of capturing this band’s lush compositions and arrangements. Having worked for years with The Clientele’s label mates and mega-collective Lambchop, he’s an expert at layering textures while maintaining space enough for instrumentation to remain distinct. The Clientele’s guitars and keys ring like chimes, Louis Philippe’s string arrangements coat space rather than just fill it, bass lines vault to the fore, individual brush strokes on drumskins are audible, a pedal steel soars overhead, and voices don’t so much harmonize as embrace the melodies. Those dynamics are matched by judicious track placement, the orchestral pop of “Isn’t Life Strange” and high-and-lonesome nostalgia of “These Days Nothing But Sunshine” set against the vintage Brit-pop of “Somebody Changed” (the best Smiths’ song since, well, the Smiths) and the swinging, Style Council-like syncopation of “Bookshop Casanova.” There’s an air of magical realism to MacLean’s compositions, probably most notable on the brief but very effecting psychedelic romp “The Garden at Night,” which sounds like the narrator wandered into somebody’s intense acid trip. The rest of the songs definitely tilt twee, so if that’s not your cuppa, stay way. But for those who enjoy lush romantic pop with a melancholic edge – you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone doing it better.
-John Schacht